Tag: Blackwater

According to The Washington Post, Blackwater founder Erik Prince met with a representative of Russian President Vladimir Putin after the 2017 elections. The reason for the January 11, 2017 meeting was to create a back-channel line of communication between President-elect Donald Trump and the Russian government.

The meeting, which took place in Seychelles, was arranged by the United Arab Emirates. Despite Mr. Prince not being a member of the Trump campaign or transition team, UAE officials treated him as an “unofficial envoy” for Mr. Trump.

“Erik had no role on the transition team. This is a complete fabrication,” a spokesman for Mr. Prince said to the Post. “The meeting had nothing to do with President Trump. Why is the so-called under-resourced intelligence community messing around with surveillance of American citizens when they should be hunting terrorists?”

The White House has also denied The Washington Post’s story. “We are not aware of any meetings and Erik Prince had no role in the transition,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said in a statement.

So Erik Prince, the same asshole who set up Blackwater as the mercenary wing of the American military during the War on Terror is now back door representing Donald Trump.

And don’t forget Blackwater, who’s “brand name” is forever linked to weapons smuggling and murder, changed it’s name to XE Services. But because nobody knew what the fuck XE meant, they changed it again to Academi.

And for the record, Mr. Prince is not associated with Acadami, which was purchased in 2011. In 2014, Academi was acquired/became a division of Constellis Holdings. They also own Triple Canopy and other security organizations.

Mr. Prince’s new company, Frontier Services Group (FSG) is now working to expand “expeditionary logistics and asset management” to Chinese companies operating in Africa. And “logistics” and “assets” means training Chinese mercenaries to work where the Chinese Army (PLA) can’t operate.

Frontier Services Group (FSG) chairman Erik Prince is offering military style training to private Chinese security forces. The idea is to rain retired Chinese soldiers to protect China’s global corporate interests. According to FSG, their training would “help non-military personnel provide close protection security, without the use of arms.” And if arms aren’t involved, FSG doesn’t break American law prohibiting export of military services or equipment to China.

If Erik Prince’s name sounds familiar, it should. He is the founder of Blackwater, a private military contracting company synonymous with the Iraq War. From 1997 to 2010, Blackwater made 2 billion dollars in government contracts. Blackwater contractors were charged with gun running and murder. He is also the brother of now Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.

First of all, why would you offer an “unarmed” protection service? And why would China want those services? And how will those skills be used? And why would an American firm provide training for an economic and military rival? Unless firearms training is included, this training is useless.

China is experiencing rapid economic expansion in Africa. That expansion needs protection, and not the unarmed kind. China’s military can’t protect those assets, but a cadre of trained contractors/mercenaries can. These contractors/mercenaries wouldn’t be answerable That cadre can also be used against American interests.

A politically well-connected entrepreneur collaborating with a country that has a terrible human rights record to training mercenaries. What can go wrong